Spontaneous Human Combustion
Referenced in 2 episodes
Definition
A phenomenon where a human body supposedly catches fire and burns without an apparent external source of ignition, often associated with mysterious circumstances.
Related episodes
36.08 - MU Podcast - Free-Running | The Human Clock
Mysterious UniverseAug 28, 2026
Hosts Joe Hodgkin and Brandon Thomas dig into Alan Burdick's 2017 book Why Time Flies to explore how humans perceive and keep time, from atomic clocks to the clocks inside our own cells. The centerpiece is French geologist Michel Siffre, who lived alone in caves without clocks in 1962 and 1972, losing track of entire weeks as his body's internal rhythms drifted apart. Along the way the hosts riff on synchronicities, underground-dwelling beings, and the strange ways nature keeps time.
36.07 - MU Podcast - Strange Powers of the Mind
Mysterious UniverseAug 21, 2026
Hosts Brandon Thomas and Joe Hodgdon dig into Warren Smith's 1968 book 'Strange Powers of the Mind' and its accounts of premonitions, mind reading and mental mastery. They cover a Wisconsin teen who ignored a fatal premonition, a Polish count buried alive under a baseball diamond, and a German mentalist who allegedly read a murderer's mind to find a hidden rifle. They also discuss the 1944 Mad Gasser of Mattoon panic, Kenyan witch doctors cursing soccer matches, and hypnosis used to boost athletes' performance.